


The Spirit of You

by Rueitae



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff, I mean he's not really, I really don't know what this is, Spirit World, Thief Lance (Voltron), again? technically?, guardian spirit pidge, kinda like a dream/daze, mild manhandling, mystical feel, or at least its supposed to, this is kind of a wild ride for Lance, threat of death, wow that's an actual tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-05
Updated: 2019-08-05
Packaged: 2020-07-31 17:02:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20118523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rueitae/pseuds/Rueitae
Summary: Lance is in trouble, and can't figure out if this strange woman in green is here to help him or kill him.





	The Spirit of You

**Author's Note:**

  * For [HorribleOClock](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HorribleOClock/gifts).

Lance falls forward, the ground impacting roughly with his face. Urgh, that was going to cause a scratch on his immaculate skin!

“Move it, thief,” the larger of his two guards growls.

It’s difficult to stand, with the narrow dirt path they travel (forced in his case) overgrown with ferns and large tree roots. He doesn’t have the use of his arms to steady himself either, pinned at his side by tight, thick rope, hands bound behind him - where the guards can see them.

The guard brings his spear high, about to strike with the blunt end again.

“Okay, okay, I’m working on it!” Lance says in haste, also annoyance. “Can you blame a guy for postponing his own execution?”

It’d only been one tiny little jewel - no one was supposed to miss it! But they had. Lance typically prided himself in his ability to sneak away, but he’d only had the gem for a half day before the guards and a very powerful magician outed him (Lance should have seen that coming - the old hermits were always powerful magic users).

So now he is to face punishment by the Guardian of the Forest. Perhaps a giant tree to step on him? Or a large bear to devour him?

“I hope you’re eaten alive by the great snake,” the smaller of the two guards says in disgust. “Rotting in its belly as it slowly crushes your bones.”

Lance bites his lip, stomach churning unpleasantly. That… did not sound pleasant.

He didn’t believe there actually was a forest guardian, not a sentient one anyway. Though a hungry tiger wasn’t out of the question, and a giant snake this deep in the jungle didn’t take much of a stretch of the imagination. Not with the constant chatter of insects and birds all around him.

No, guardians didn’t exist. If they did, his family’s farm would be flourishing instead of withered like the riverbed - the one his grandmother said was healthy and strong in the days before he was born.

Thieving is the only way to get them food these days. A sharp pain runs through his heart as he thinks of his family without him, not knowing what became of him. Whatever his fate here, it will be up to his siblings to find some other way to put dinner on the table now.

His guards wait until he’s standing at his full height before prodding him on again.

Lance manages to keep his footing this time as he plows through a thicket, the small purple flower deceptively beautiful as tiny thorns scratch and poke at his skin.

Turning and glaring, Lance shouts into the thicket where his guards haven’t joined him, “You know, you guys could be a little _ nicer _!”

They don’t respond. And they don’t follow him.

He huffs in indignation… though his heart beats just a little bit faster. Why didn’t they follow him? They’d been seriously set on bringing him to the ‘Guardian’s Place’, wherever that was.

But then he turns.

Before him is a clearing within the, what up until now, has been plants climbing all over each other. Light falls in from the thick canopy to a single spot in the middle of the area that looks more like a manicured lawn than a spot in the middle of the jungle.

The light illuminates a stone dais, carved in intricate detail that Lance can see even from his distance. Vines wrap around it in a disorderly fashion, flowing pink petals making it seem almost inviting.

If not for the reason Lance knows he’s here, that is. He gulps, knots twisting in his stomach. The guards seem confident they are no longer needed.

“H-hello?” he tries cautiously. The clearing is eerily silent, no animal speaks here. “Forest… Guardian… person… ?” Silence.

There is no such thing, Lance tells himself. It’ll be a jungle cat or a giant snake. Neither of them sound like a good way to go.

“O-okay,” he starts, eyes starting around, looking for whatever might eat him. “Well, if you’re not home. I’m gonna go.” He chuckles, but the situation feels far from funny. “And, don’t take this personally, I don’t intend to come back.”

He spins around and charges through the thicket…

Only to arrive back at the clearing.

Lance doesn’t come from a family of mages. In fact, the closest he’s been to any form of actual magic aside from books is the time the court wizard came to inspect the river and gave a show for the children in apology for being unable to do anything about the lack of water.

But he knows this is magic, an ancient magic that he can’t even hope to fight.

“I’m sorry!” he blurts as he walks further into the clearing. The trees provide too much cover for any animal that may sneak up on him. “I’m _ really _ sorry, okay! I wouldn’t even need the stupid jewel if we had water for our crops. I’ll find something else - just let me go!” he pleads.

A heartbeat later, the ground begins to shake. The ground at the opposite treeline breaks away, crumbling away as if falling off a cliff.

Lance gasps and turns, only to see that the same is happening behind him. The ground that he’d stood on mere moments before upturns, showing the black fertile soil beneath it. And continues to do so, closer and closer…

He’s pinned. Quiznak, it’s not eaten alive that will be his fate but falling to his death. Even so, he scrambles to the middle of what was once the clearing. In a last, desperate, and probably wishful attempt to save his life, he falls to his knees onto the stone.

The earth crumbles at the edge of the dais and as Lance screams, is engulfed in an otherworldly white light.

With a hint of a green hue.

Lance closes his eyes tight.

But he never experiences the sensation of falling. He peeks with one eye open, bracing himself for--

“Ooooh, so _ that’s _ what you look like! You’re kinda cute!”

Lance breathes heavily as he slowly opens his other eye. His mind whirls at the oddly young voice that can only belong to the Forest Guardian. The clearing is back, looking exactly the same as it had moments before the earthquake.

“Wha-what is going on?” he asks. A snake might have been easier and more straightforward to deal with.

He turns and sees her - a young brunette with cropped hair _ floating upside down _ before him.

Yelping and eyes bulging at their sockets, Lance falls backwards. His bound wrists roll on impact with the stone and he hisses in pain. Great, now he’s probably sprained it on top of all the trouble he’s gotten into today.

“Don’t move it!” The girl says. “I can fix it!”

Lance obliges, less out of compliance but more out of the fact he can’t seem to physically move. More magic, he supposes.

He’s completely at the mercy of this so-called guardian.

The girl tugs on a vine and in one fluid motion she rights herself and lowers to the grassy surface of the clearing, stepping lightly with her bare feet amidst a group of pink flowers. Her translucent cloak rides atop the grass, covering her arms more than her shoulders, and clasped neatly around her neck. She practically skips to his side, kneeling before the dias.

“Those ropes don’t help,” she pouts. “I can’t properly observe you all tied up like that.”

“Wh-what?” Lance gapes, fear seizing his heart anew. Is he a simple frog or an exotic lion? “Who _ are _you?”

The girl grins. “I’m the Guardian of the forest,” she says with a shrug. “You can call me Pidge for now.”

Pidge lifts her fingers and snaps. As the sound fades, the ropes that bind him turn into withered bark and fall loose to the stone harmlessly.

Lance barely has time to feel relief now that he’s free of the scratchy constraints, for Pidge takes his one of his hands and kisses it.

Heat rushes to his cheeks, embarrassment in his gut as he tries to speak. “What are you doing?” he manages to squeak. Great, now he can’t even fake bravery in the face of this unknown. What he wouldn’t give for Jenny to do even this to him, not this strange girl whom he doesn’t even know the motives of.

He still can’t believe she exists, much less so _ human _ with the wide eyed curiosity she regards him with. Lance supposes if he were to imagine a forest spirit in human form, it would be her. Though her green dress is elegant and her touch soft, there’s a wildness about her actions reflected in her short, messy hair and lack of shoes.

A soft, green glow surrounds her lips and extends across his hand. It tingles under his skin, followed by a relaxing cooling sensation.

Her lips part and she pats his hand with her other, smile brilliant and pleased. “Healing you, of course,” she says brightly. Without waiting for his reaction, she pokes at his skin, a puzzled expression on her face. “You mortals are so frail, how do survive for as long as you do?”

Lance has no answer to that. “I-I don’t know,” he says honestly. He gulps, gathering his courage to ask, “Listen, thanks. For healing me and setting me free,” he starts. “That’s awfully nice of you. Do… do you think you could send me back home now?”

It’s worth a shot.

The Guardian’s eyes turn sharp, dangerous. “The theft of the Jewel of Jitan is a serious crime. Without it, my power can’t extend to the village at the edge of the forest. You were ready to doom countless lives for a few worthless gold coins!”

Something within Lance snaps. Perhaps it’s the years away from home, only coming back to deliver food and supplies to aid his siblings in their toils against a soil that yields nothing but weeds. Perhaps it’s the eyes of his small niece and nephew when they see a fresh vegetable and liken it to candy.

Lance cares not that he is at the whims of this being. He won’t diminish the needs of his family to that of a village with stores of grain to last years.

He snarls. “Those gold coins give my mother something other than roots to feed my family. It buys my brother hardy seeds to grow with less water. And until the river runs again and waters our fields, I’ll keep doing _ whatever it takes _ to keep them alive.”

Adrenaline keeps his outward appearance firm, no matter how many ways he can imagine Pidge killing him.

Instead, his words of anger and frustration reach her, mouth open in astonishment and eyes wide in surprise.

“Whatever it takes,” she repeats, as if in a world far away from this one.

Lance deflates, shoulders slumping, looking around at the clearing. There are more flowers now than he remembered.

He sighs. “Look. I don’t need your gem,” he appeals. “I just need to take care of my family. I can find something else, but time is working against me.”

Pidge is silent for longer than Lance likes, cocking her head to the side as if examining him.

“You remind me of someone I miss very much,” she says. The sides of her mouth turn down into a frown. “I once told him I would do anything for my family too.”

Lance bites his lip. That’s nice and all, but what did that have to do with--

“When he disappeared, the water level of the great Blue River dropped,” she continues.

His jaw drops. “You mean, there was a kind of… water guardian too? _ That’s _ why my family is suffering?” It angers him, that his family’s lives were based on the whims of some being not doing his job.

Pidge nods sadly. “Yours and many others. Please don’t be angry with him,” she begs. “I know he would never leave you like this on purpose.”

Though she asks him not to, frustration boils under his skin. “Then what am I supposed to do in the meantime?” he demands.

The Guardian stands, regal in her dress that flows out like the petals of a flower, cape draping elegantly on her shoulders. “You said you would do anything, did you not?” A vine descends from the treetops and she lifts herself into a swing. A soft smile graces her lips as she holds out her hand to him,

“Would you like to find out how?”

The last thing Lance’s brain wants to do is trust her, yet… in the corners of his mind, he inexplicably knows she is the answer to his problems. If she knows how his family came into ruin… perhaps she really is the right person to fix it.

His hand moves on its own and takes hers. With inhuman strength she lifts him up, offering him a vine. Biting his lip, he grips the vine with all his strength as to not fall. It turns out unneeded as additional vines crawl around his waist and legs to support his weight.

But as they climb higher and higher, Lance can’t help but cling tightly, emitting what he’s sure is the most pathetic whimper.

Surely humanity isn’t meant to be this high off the ground?

Pidge chuckles at his side. “I won’t let you fall, Lance. You’ll love this, trust me.”

Lance isn’t so sure of that as the ground moves away faster and faster.

Wait. He hadn’t told her his name. How--

“AH!” Lance screams. The air passes him like a gust of wind and the leaves of the trees blur together. He pinches his eyes shut and holds the vine for all he’s worth.

Then, suddenly, all is still.

Pidge’s voice is first. “Take a look,” she encourages. “I promise it’s worth it.”

There is no malice that Lance can detect, so carefully, he opens his eyes.

The two of them still hang from vines among the trees; how far above the ground, Lance cannot tell. Overgrowth floods the path below them, but Lance is no longer scared. Brightly colored birds fly around them, chirping joyfully, and monkeys clammer on the tree branches nearest to them as they sink slowly.

This is no longer the jungle Lance walked through to get to the clearing. The trees here feel far more ancient, and ribbons of many colored flowers fall from their branches.

“Where are we?” he asks, amazed.

“One of your favorite places,” Pidge responds with pep. Before he can question her strange response, she holds out a hand and a wayward vine of bluish-green comes at her command. Positioning it between them, she twirls a part of it around her ankle before standing, using only the single vine to keep from falling.

She takes his hand and with a warm, knowing smile says, “Let’s dance.”

Lance has little time for proper dancing, learning some courtly moves only out of necessity, hoping to swindle some poor duchess with sweet words and graceful steps.

Here, he lets Pidge lead. He knows his mouth won’t close, knows it is rude, but nothing about what they do is normal by any stretch of the imagination.

She lets him stay seated, his hand in hers as they sway among the trees.

Lance thinks he should be impatient, as he admits he typically is when things don’t go his way, and not being in control eats at him only briefly. It’s hard to think at all as Pidge swings around him with ease and fearlessness, her joyous smile infectious once he realizes he isn’t going to fall.

The leaves of the trees shimmer with golden sunlight with what peeks through the canopy. It lights her hair, her eyes sparkle with such happiness that Lance can’t ever imagine thinking she’d kill him on the spot.

“Getting the hang of it?” she asks.

He’s caught dumbfounded. “I, uh, it’s… nice,” he says lamely, wincing in advance for whatever disappointment she finds in his response.

Instead she laughs. “You’re not getting the full experience. Come on.”

So she lifts him out of his seat. He yelps in panic, holding the same vine as she for all he’s worth.

“Is this my punishment for stealing?” he whimpers. “Scaring the thieving out of me?”

Pidge finds humor in his words. “I won’t let you fall,” she promises softly.

She’s so close he can hear the whisper loud and clear. He’s inches from her face, the wide rimmed glasses almost touching his nose.

His face burns at the close proximity to this beautiful woman.

She rests an arm on the back of his shoulder and wraps a vine around both of them, pulling his chest tighter to her, foreheads lightly touching and their lips nearly so.

Lance hardly notices that they begin to sway with the wind, Pidge giving him such a calming presence that he’s captivated not just in body, but also in mind.

He’s vaguely aware of twisting and turning as a hand boldly finds a way around the to her lower back and his grip loosens on the vine. All words are taken from his breath, all that remains is Pidge’s delighted laughter and the animals that watch their dance in the air.

Too soon it comes to an end when his feet touch lightly upon the ground. When he stands on his own, the vines drop limply around him.

Pidge jumps to the ground and immediately takes both his hands in hers. “Come, I have something I need to show you.”

Lance is dragged through an unmarked path, unseeable as they jog through leaves and flowers the sizes of which he’s never seen, all in an assortment of different and vibrant colors.

“Where are we going?” he finally asks. He can’t help but let the concern creep up in his gut again. Was that magical dance just to slow his mind?

Pidge spares a look back at him, a casual smile on his face. “A way to save your family!”

That lifts his spirits more than anything. He picks up the pace, more than keeping up with Pidge instead of being dragged along.

They reach a small clearing much the same as the one his guards dumped him in, though the plants are much healthier and varied. The difference is a birdhouse hanging from a sapling near the center dais.

Pidge opens a small door to the birdhouse. Retrieving what she seeks, she holds it out to him in both her palms.

It’s a necklace, beaded with shells and seaweed, colored in brilliant blues and whites. It smells of the sea.

“This is my friend’s most treasured possession. It allowed him to keep track of the water all around the world.” Pidge frowns as she clutches it tightly. “He left it to me for safekeeping, promising he’d be back.”

She looks so sorrowful, and Lance wonders how close they really were.

“I’m sorry he hasn’t come back,” he says sympathetically. And he does mean it. He hasn’t known her long, but he hates seeing her so upset.

Pidge brightens considerably at his words. “It’s okay. You have his spirit, that’s enough for right now.” She shoves the necklace into his hands. “Try it on and think about what you want for your family.”

A rush of energy fills him when he takes the necklace from Pidge. Though he looks down at it in his hands, further down he sees flashes of himself standing on a rock surrounded by choppy waves, his feet bare but for a blue anklet. Blue robes of summer sky and dark ocean flow around his knees.

But in a flash he’s back in the jungle with his brown boots and grey slacks.

“Wh-what is this?” he says, voice shaking. What is he seeing?

“It’s different for everyone,” Pidge says. “But for the person they belong to, the necklace shows hidden memories. Focus.”

With her encouragement, Lance does as she asks. Closing his eyes, he sees his family’s farm. His siblings toil in the field while his little niece and nephew look for nuts and berries by the dry river.

It needs to flow. They need water. He doesn’t want them to live like this.

Nadia notices it first, pointing it out to her brother. Water pools at the bottom of the riverbed, and slowly fills it. It flows, a current forming once more after decades of disuse.

The rest of the family eventually comes to look. They cry, because now there is water aplenty for them and their crops.

“I knew it,” Pidge says. It snaps Lance out of his trance. He’s back in the jungle with her.

“Was that real?” Lance chokes, hopeful. He braces himself for disappointment, because he’s had his fair share of it before.

Pidge nods. “It was. Well done, Lance. I knew you could do it again.”

Lance furrows his eyebrows. “Again? Wait, how did you even know my name? I never gave it!”

“You did long ago.” Pidge smiles, though there’s a sadness behind her eyes. “You just don’t remember. Would you like to go home now?”

_ Yes _ , is what he wants to say, but the word is stuck in his throat. He knows the stories of mortals trapped in immortal realms, and fears that now he knows why. He can’t bring himself to want to leave, something magical trapping him to this spot.

His host seems to understand. She takes his hands in hers, though they are half his size, rubbing them gently. “I understand. Take the necklace. Keep it with you always, never give it to another. Return here in one year so that the water will continue to flow.”

“Why me?” he presses. “I don’t understand.” Because he wants to understand, so badly. How does she know his name? Why does this necklace and its power feel so comfortable? Why can he use it? Surely if Pidge wanted to, she could have done this?

A soft, green glow like her healing kiss surrounds his hands before covering his body. Pidge looks at him as if she wishes to say more, a longing in her eyes that breaks his heart.

“Maybe you’ll remember next year,” she says. “See you then, Lance.” Reaching up on her tiptoes, she plants a gentle kiss on his cheek.

The world blurs and her touch fades away. When he blinks, he’s standing on the edge of his family’s farm. The sound of the rushing river clear as the house that stands in the near distance.

In his hands, the beaded necklace.

It had been real.

“Uncle Lance! It’s Uncle Lance, he’s back!”

The delighted shrieks of his niece and nephew break him out of his stupor. He kneels and scoops them into his arms, hugging them close.

For them, he’ll go back in one year to see Pidge. He can only hope then his questions will be answered.

Until then, her calm smile and bright eyes fill his thoughts, and despite the mystery, he can’t wait to be in her presence again.

**Author's Note:**

> So... guardian Lance turned mortal, yeah? when are you gonna tell him Pidge? ... she probably thinks he's figured it out already. And to his credit he probably will once he gets over that wasn't a dream. 
> 
> Based on the beautiful art of Pidge [here](https://rueitae.tumblr.com/post/186797322240/the-lady-in-green-captainlily-bug-i-said-i-would)!
> 
> Find me on [Tumblr](https://rueitae.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
